Skip to main content

2016-2017 esa fellows

Kathryn Bloodworth (Eastern University)

  • Project at: W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
  • Mentor: William West
  • Mentor Institution: Michigan State University
  • Blog: http://adventuresofkbs2016.blogspot.com/
  • Project Title:Understanding the effects of the bioaccessability of carbon on denitrification and microbial community structures, specifically on the NorB and NosZ genes

kathryn-bloodworthKathryn is majoring in Biology and minoring in Environmental Science at Eastern University in Pennsylvania. She is planning on pursuing a doctorate degree once she graduates in December of 2016.

As she moved from Florida to Belgium and then to New Jersey, her passion for the environment developed alongside her eagerness to help all creatures. A life of traveling from state to state and country to country also helped Kathryn to see how our world has been changing. As she entered college, her passion for all things living only grew as she began taking classes that connected her love for the world to real life issues and potential solutions. As she moves on to graduate school and eventually her career, Kathryn hopes to make a difference in the world of ecology. She is eager to research environmentally sustainable solutions to the large issues our world is currently facing.

Chelsea Hazlett (University of Florida)

  • Project at: Cedar Creek Ecosystems Science Reserve – LTER, Minnesota
  • Mentor: Kimberly La Pierre
  • Mentor Institution: University of California, Berkeley
  • Project Title: Mutualisms alter biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships under global change

chelsea-hazlettChelsea is going into her senior year at the University of Florida and will graduate with a B.S. in Environmental Management as well as minors in Leadership and Soil and Water Science. Her love for the environment came about at a young age as she got to experience first-hand the beauty of coral reefs. Her passion for their protection and that of the environment as a whole would soon follow as she watched the health of the reefs fail over the years. Although she does not get to study coral reefs she has become extremely interested in nutrient cycling, biogeochemistry, and soil sciences.

Moreover, Chelsea is currently working on two academic papers based on her independent projects at UF and at Cedar Creek. She hopes to attend graduate school to obtain her PhD and her law degree in order to be a source of change through improved policy or environmental law.

Nikita Kowal (Arizona State University)

  • Project at: Central Arizona/Phoenix – LTER, Arizona
  • Mentor: Dr. Becky Ball
  • Mentor Institution: Arizona State University
  • Project Title: The Effects of Nitrogen Deposition on Microbial Communities in Desert Soils
  • Blog: http://desertsoils.blogspot.com

nikitaNikita Kowal is pursuing a Chemical Engineering degree with a minor in Sustainability at Arizona State University. Her previous experience in a biogeochemistry lab as well as her passion for hiking has sparked Nikita’s curiosity in environment science and sustainability. She would like to incorporate what she learns through the SPUR Fellowship into her future endeavors in chemical engineering and integrate ecology with engineering. Being from the heart of the Sonoran Desert where water is scarce, Nikita hopes to one day go into desalination or water treatment, as her true interests lie in the water sector.

Michelle Poletti (Florida International University)

    • Project at: Central Arizona/Phoenix – LTER, Arizona
    • Mentor: Ariane Middel
    • Mentor Institution: Arizona State University
    • Project Title: Impact of interior temperatures of shaded and unshaded vehicles on children’s health- A case study in Phoenix, AZ

michelle-polettiMichelle is an incoming junior at Florida International University. She will be the president of the S.E.E.D.S. chapter there and hopes to increase student involvement. Her experiences through S.E.E.D.S. have really driven her towards scientific research. Her previous lab experience was with the Broward County Environmental Monitoring Laboratory, where she helped take water samples (ground and surface) at various sites throughout the county.

She assisted in turbidity, dissolved solids, and chlorophyll analysis. The cause of her interest in science was initially exposure to unique environments. Growing up surrounded by Everglades National Park, The Keys, and various reefs made an impactful impression on her. Her long term goal is to attend graduate school for environmental engineering with emphasis on remediation or sustainable materials. That being said, she is eager to continue to learn about science in her undergraduate career. The research that she is conducting this summer will push her out of her comfort zone while allowing her to gain valuable computer modeling skills. She is also eager to learn how the urban desert ecosystem and the natural desert ecosystem interplay.

Rebekah Sanchez (University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez)

    • Project at: W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
    • Mentor: Kate Glanville
    • Mentor Institution: Michigan State University
    • Project Title: Nitrous Oxide fluxes in altered precipitation patterns varying landscape positions

rebekah-sanchezRebekah Sánchez is a Horticulture major at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus and is graduating next spring 2017. After coming to the reality of starvation around the world, she decided to study agriculture. Along the way she has learned how the predominating conventional systems are not sustainable and actually are very harmful to the environment. She considers that the contamination and degradation generated from agriculture is a matter of priority and would like to take part in the mitigation of such. After being introduced to agroecology Rebekah has become an active promoter of it since it has proven to be viable and a much healthier way to produce accessible food. She has facilitated various workshops of the advantages of seeing farms as ecosystems and how to maintain their health and productivity using methods that imitate natural processes. In the near future she plans to continue learning of sustainable agriculture in other countries as well as by partaking in research. Her long term goal is to be involved in the improvement of agricultural practices promoting sustainability and food security.

Maggie Yarnold (Loyola University Chicago)

  • Project at: Llano River Field Station
  • Mentor: Tom Arsuffi
  • Mentor Institution: Texas Tech University
  • Project Title: Ungulate Foraging Pressures on Riparian Zones Along the South Llano River

maggieMaggie is now an environmental conservation and restoration major as well as journalism, print; she is expected to graduate in 2019. Although she grew up in the vast city of Chicago, IL she developed and held onto a fascination (or rather passion) for the environment; specifically, conserving and restoring ecosystems to a reference source closer to when the greatest native species richness occurred. That being said, it was surprising that Yarnold developed an avid love for sharks and oceanic ecosystems. However, she is looking into a career path toward restoring oceanic systems and studying/conserving sharks. In her free time, Yarnold enjoys fishing, hiking, mountain biking, line dancing, etc. Yarnold has also begun to enjoy downhill skiing and has joined the ski club at her school.